LA Times: Coulter's anti-Semitic comment too dangerous to ignore

[RamboLiberal]

Ann Coulter is buzzing from one talk show to another these days, peddling her new book. Our era values mindless contention as a kind of entertainment, and we don't just reward relentless self-promotion -- we admire it. Thus, Coulter's phenomenal success at marketing distasteful, mean-spirited books -- poorly written and spottily researched -- that otherwise would go all but unremarked upon by everyone except the rhetorical ghouls who haunt the political fringes.

Now, no Coulter promotional campaign would be complete without a calculated outrage -- a call for the forcible conversion of all Muslims, for example, or a demand for revocation of women's suffrage, an insult hurled at gays or the grieving widows of Sept. 11 victims. As more than one political consultant has remarked, the American far right is a carnivorous constituency, and it needs to be regularly thrown red meat. Coulter's singular genius has been to ignite tightly focused and timely controversies, thereby getting her ideological opponents to toss the scraps to her fans.

So if you know what's coming, why play ball and deliver the denunciation that validates the Coulter strategy?

In part, it's because this time Coulter didn't intend to ignite the firestorm that's currently raging around her; in part, it's because the implications of these latest remarks simply are too threatening to be allowed to stand.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-rutten13oct13,0,1859447.column?coll=la-home-center

[tularetom]

1. Yeah but the controversy will sell a lot a books

that's all this is about people. as long as coulter can stir up some shit she gets her name in front of people and more asswipes go and buy her crappy books. If she stirs up enough shit she might even be able to sell some without her rich wing nut buddies buyin them up in bulk and giving them away.

It's a freakshow and the more outrageous it acts the more publicity it gets. But if the media is as dominated by Jews as a lot of the wingers seem to think, and if those Jews were really as offended as they have been reported to be, perhaps it has crossed the line this time. The article seems to imply that.

i hope that's the case.

[valerief]

2. Why attack Coulter?

Why not attack the news media who give her a platform? It's like a parent too lazy/over-worked/tired to discipline their child. Coulter's bad behavior would bother anyone if she weren't given a platform.

[rockymountaindem]

3. The best paragraph comes near the end:

"It's a scandal that in this pluralist nation it falls to the voices of organized Jewry to make this case, because it is a case whose outcome is of the greatest consequence to us all. For too long we've pretended that the brutal political rhetoric that now characterizes our partisan politics can be quarantined, that it won't inevitably leach over into every other aspect of our lives. In fact, it's doing just that, and soon the coarse and vituperative language of the war between red and blue -- with it's instantaneous imputations of bad-faith and utter disrespect for minimal civility -- will begin to color aspects of our civil society where mutual respect is too crucial and hard won to tolerate this sort of risk."

That's a good article.

[DBoon]

4. and breaching this line was why Julius Streicher was hung as a war criminal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Streicher

Julius Streicher (February 12, 1885 – October 16, 1946) was a prominent Nazi prior to and during World War II. He was the publisher of the Nazi Der Stürmer newspaper, which was to become a part of the Nazi propaganda machine. His publishing firm released three anti-Semitic books for children, including the 1938 Der Giftpilz (The Poison Mushroom), one of the most widespread pieces of propaganda, which purported to warn about insidious dangers Jews posed by using the metaphor of an attractive yet deadly mushroom. After the war, he was convicted of crimes against humanity and executed.

Brutal rhetoric starts as entertainment, poisons the cultural and political environment, and ends up justifying mass crime

[tom_paine]

6. Bushies and Nazis alike seek control over evey aspect of society

The Bushies are 40% of the way to having what the Nazis had, and without having to be very violent about it, which no doubt makes them jealous in their secret hearts of the Nazis and THEIR unwavering path to triumph over Liberalism.

Even IF such was not the Bushie intention in the first place, like the dancing brroms in Disnet's Fantasia, once these dark reptilian emotions areawakened and cultivated by the Bushies in their weak-minded followers, it will not stop until it has run it's course.

But I don't believe for a minute the Bushies are "mistaken" in what they've done. On the contrary, there is evidence that they were envious of the Soviet power over information, even back during Reagan when they stood against the Soviets.

In retrospect, it seems they only did that to pave the way for BushPutinism, an Amerikan-style tyranny based on Free Market principles.

[Hekate]

5. Kick.

:kick:

Hekate

[Joanne98]

7. I've noticed that nobody is attacking her. I was wondering why?

I was hoping we could bury her permantly with this one, but everyone is soooooo quiet. What's up?

[yurbud]

8. here's a thought: If whole Middle East debacle collapses, Israel will be blamed

not because they are the sole or even primary cause but because they are highly visible advocates of what Bush has been doing.

Ironically, those most harmed by the strength of the Israel lobby are Israelis themselves. The lobby has set them up to be the perfect scapegoats for failed imperialism.

Coulter as the designated avant garde of right wing extremism may have been signaling the turn.

Or she is just nuts.


But if she was just nuts, this wouldn't have gotten as much play as it did.

[nxylas]

9. Outrage fatigue?

By this point, Coulter could call for the Jews to be gassed and people would just roll their eyes and sigh "there she goes again".